Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. Unfortunately, it's gloomy today. I had a pretty nice weekend up until today, when I have to work 3-11. Saturday, Kim & I went to my brother & sister-in-law's house down the shore. We helped them finish putting rocks down in their yard and then had a big bbq to reward ourselves. Had a burger, 2 dogs, beans, corn, fritos with hummus, tostitos, pickles, tomato & fresh mozzarella, malibu & pineapple juice, fruit salad, some cake, and I think that's it. Pretty good variety of foods. We watched some Chappelle's Show and then Dane Cook's comedy special before turning in for the night.

Woke up Sunday with a very tight back and quite tired. Rachel made us all some good waffles with some fruit salad and sausage for breakfast. We then helped to clean off their pool cover and put up a gazebo in their yard. Their yard looks amazing with the rocks and the pool opened. There's still a lot of room to play with a tiki bar or wiffle ball field. After showering, my bro & I played a good game of wiffle ball homerun derby for old time's sake. He won in 10 innings 6-5. Obviously we felt the rust since we hadn't played in some time, plus our swings hurt our backs more than the shoveling from Saturday. When we returned to the house, we were hungry, and decided to get lunch from a friendly place known as Surf Taco. Mmm, that was good, but left us all feeling like blimps. So we went to sit our lazy asses in the sun by the pool for a bit and just talked and listened to some tunes. After a game of HORSE with my brother, we got some ice cream and felt fat again. We proceeded to chill and then it suddenly became cold and cloudy. We stayed out for a bit, but started cleaning up and went inside. We watched the dvd Evolution, which I think did poorly in theaters, but was supposed to do well. Anyway, we all enjoyed it, and I thought it was better than the first two times I saw it. After dinner, we ate some dirty shrimp and waited for our filet minons to grill. Good dinner. After cleaning up, Kim & I had to drive home. Overall, a relaxing weekend with lots of good food.

The ride home was somewhat crappy due to a huge backup at the Driscoll Bridge (somewhere around exit 129). Mostly before and after that, we were at least driving at a tolerable pace. Now it's time to mope until 2:30 when I leave for work. Can't wait until our week in July. Oh crap, it's not even June yet.

Jogging was fun today. It's been a while. It felt good, but at the same time, my legs burned. Also, at the end, my stomach decided to convulse and finally digest my food from yesterday, causing me some discomfort(i.e. a stomach ache). I'll probably be really tired at work, especially since I have to be there until 11. Yikes!

The jazz place was pretty cool. It was something different that's for sure. I definitely would have enjoyed it more if I had not had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning for work.

I don't know what I'm going to do today before work. I'll probably clean my room or something. I'd clean my car, but it looks like rain again. I'm sure I'll end up blogging again later.

It was warehouse day at work, which meant getting up at 4:30. The day began on a great note, because at 6 am, a new assistant manager was scheduled(started last week), and me & one of the other assistants were working on unloading the truck and wondered where the other guy was. So the one assistant paged the office to ask where he was. About 5 minutes later, the new assistant comes thru the back door with this attitude about how he didn't like the way the other assistant paged him. The quarrel turned to much louder voices and some other non-relevant personal info was thrown into the assistant's face. The new guy had no right to do this because it's personal business, and he's new, so he doesn't know crap about anyone yet. Anyway, the argument died when the assistant apologized(which he shouldn't have) and said he's sorry the new guy took it the wrong way. About 10 minutes later the new guy starts again by saying how he interpreted the page. I just said it's too early in the morning for this nonsense. After the truck was unloaded, the two assistants talked in the office and settled the matter I guess, but throughout the rest of the day, I could still tell the new guy had a chip on his shoulder. Unbelievable. I wish people would act their age sometimes.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and I for one am going to Wildwood with Klein to drink skunky Molson Ice and smoke weed with a girl who's allergic to smoke. (This is a reference that only Dennis would understand, sorry!) Seriously, I think we're heading to my brother's on Saturday to help him finish laying out rocks in his yard and opening his pool. We'll stay over and go in the pool Sunday, unless the predictions are right, and it's only 70. Gotta work on Monday, though, but not sure what time yet. Anybody doing anything special?

I got home from work at about 11:45, so I'm not really tired yet. Plus, I had to get the garbage ready to take out for tomorrow. I have to be at work for 9 in the morning, which isn't horrible, but still not the greatest. Can you tell I've got nothing better to do with my time than blog since I've had about 6 posts in 2 days? Some lady today spent over $300 on band-aids and water. I couldn't quite make out the connection between the two however. Good night.

I just checked, and it's not *'d out...yet. Also, I changed something from their template. Where I have links, they originally had "previous posts" which gave the first sentence from the last 7 days worth of blogs so you can click on it and go directly to it. I thought this was sort of dumb since you can simply scroll down and view the last 7 days worth of blogs. Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture.

I was getting tired of the blue. Sorry. I lost all my links when I changed the template, so if there's some links you want me to put up, just let me know, because I don't remember all of them. Anyway, gotta be at work at 3, and I'm going to see my grandmother beforehand. I hope it's not 100 in her house. I noticed while scrolling thru some of the archives that many bad words were *'d out, so I'm going to test it. Fuck! If it's bleeped out, then I'm gonna be pretty pissed.

Alias last night was pretty good. Hope it comes back next season and they don't replace it with that dreadful Nick & Jessica variety hour of crap.

Never mind, problem fixed. It just looked large in the preview mode for some reason.

It's late and I just changed the look of this blog. I don't know if I like it or not, and I can't figure out how to change the size of the font. Right now, it's made for folks with really bad vision...

I just talked to Rob! I'm glad he seems to be doing well. He has been missed on our blog here, just as everyone else has. It's very warm out today, but I am actually enjoying the warmth thus far. It feels nice hitting my skin after that god-awful winter. I still don't like sweating, but maybe I'll start taking ice baths to cool myself down before going out. My mom's listening to the radio in the background, and that horrendous song by the fine young cannibals is playing-you know the one where the guy sounds like he's mumbling in a high pitched voice...she drives me crazy. uh uh. Dammit! How come there's never a baseball game on when I'm waiting for Kim to get home from work on Saturday? Shouldn't they be outside in the sun scratching their nuts and chewing Big League Chew on this fine day? No Mets, not even the Yankees, who I would allow myself to watch just to pass time, and not even rugby or something wacky. Just infomercials, crappy vh1 programming, or terrible cartoons. Ah well. Adios amigos.

Happy Birthday Matt! Next time I see you, I buy you a beverage of your choice. Enjoy the day senor!

I knew the Blue Jays were on ESPN's daygame again today, and since I'd be getting home around 3, I figured I'd be able to catch a bit of the end of the game. When I left work, at about 2:40, I turned on the sports scoreboard on the radio, and it was the 7th inning, and the Jays had just taken a 5-2 lead. I got home about 20 minutes later, and the score on the tv screen reads 6-5 Twins, and then I hear something about grand slam and Matt LeCroy. I come to find out that Terry Adams, who blew the game last Weds for the birds gave up a grand slam in the top of the 9th inning, and the Jays were then trailing 6-5. Needless to say, they didn't come back and win in the bottom of the 9th. Again I witness(sort of) the bullpen collapse.

I found out my grades last night and did ok. I got a B and an A- It's funny because I thought my grades would be switched, or at least thought I would have done worse in the other class, but I'll take it, especially since I'm probably not going back anytime soon. I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go lie down.

I'm supposed to be at work in about 45 minutes, yet I really don't feel like moving. I'm not even ready yet, either. It's gloomy out, so I guess I'm just in one of those moods where I don't feel like doing a damn thing. Well, I guess I shall be getting ready now. Time for work routine: drive the same way to work, park in the same choice of 3 spots, get my water and walk to the door. Walk in and say hi to the cashier, although I can give a rat's ass how her weekend was, walk to photo and say hi to the photo guy. Punch in the combo to the back area. Glance at the time clock. Notice I'm early as usual. Stare aimlessly at the 2-year-old notices on the bulletin board, and wait until 3 minutes before my shift begins to punch in. As I walk out the door, the manager will call my name, even though he knows I was out there for 10 minutes already and could have talked to me then instead of waiting until my right leg is on the sales floor. Asshole. Let the day begin...

I enjoyed this weekend a lot. I spent most of the time with Kim, and relaxed as well. Today, we had to bring her brother to his home in Sparta, no not that Sparta. We ended up staying there for a while chatting and then we ended up getting free burgers and snacks for dinner which was a bonus. Nice house, nice day, free grub!

Upon our arrival home, I was able to use Kim's laptop to burn a mix cd for my car. I tried going with a summery/upbeat mix. Most of the stuff is pretty uninteresting to most folks, but here's how my setlist goes:

01. Feeling This: Blink 182
02. Into the Darkness: No Motiv
03. Sunny Side of the Street: Face to Face
04. Amber: 311
05. Guerilla Radio: Rage Against The Machine
06. It's Been A Blast: Hey Mercedes
07. Cool For One Night: Hot Rod Circuit
08. Blue Groove: Kid With Man Head
09. Does That Make Sense?: The Jealous Sound
10. You've Got So Far To Go: Alkaline Trio
11. A Praise Chorus: Jimmy Eat World
12. Fat Lip: Sum 41
13. Photograph: Weezer
14. Big Brat: Phantom Planet
15. Warning: Incubus
16. Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off To Heaven: Saves The Day
17. Blue Sky: Dynamite Hack
18. Who's Gonna Save Us?: The Living End
19. J.A.R.: Green Day
20. The Page: Appleseed Cast
21. PS We'll Call You When We Get There: The Juliana Theory
22. Break It Off: Koufax
23. Intergalactic: Beastie Boys

Much of the stuff is old or whatever, but I don't care because no matter how many new cds I buy, I still get sick of all my cds. I don't know what to do with myself since I don't have to work until 3 tomorrow. I think I'll try to finish reading The Corrections finally!

I'm home and not tired enough to go to bed or in the mood to play MLB 2005 or watch a dvd, so I'm blogging again. Went to lunch at Houlihan's and ate almost an entire plate of chicken nachos by myself before surrendering to my dinner salad. A salad! I was defeated by a salad. It was good, but I couldn't eat anymore. It consisted of garden greens, grilled chicken, tortilla strips, cherry tomatoes, shredded jack cheese, toasted pecans, and ranch dressing. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to salvage it after having it wrapped up since we were going out. Not about to leave it in my car, so I left it on the streets of Weehawken for a bum to eat at a later time.

Purchased new sneakers, undershirts, and 2 shirts. Nothing major, but stuff that was needed to some extent. Just enjoyed the day with Kim and not worrying about work or school. Tomorrow I may wash my car, bowflex, and make a mix cd with the help of Kim's laptop. Time for my crest whitestrips.

It's currently 86 outside and it's still sunny! On a Saturday! Welcome weekend...My weekends feel more complete now that school is over and I'm not writing papers. In addition, my work schedule has changed for the better (slightly).

Monday: 3-11 pm
Tuesday: 9am-5pm
Weds: 530am-230pm
Thur: 9am-5pm
Fri: 8am-5pm

So I got more hours, meaning a bit more money, although not at the rate I'm getting paid. But going in late on Monday is spectacular since I don't have to deal with the photolab on Monday morning from all the weekend photographers, and I get to extend my weekend by a bit.

Hope to do some shopping today since I struck out last night and came home with a belt of all things. Need basics and new sneaks. How about Orlando Hudson? Man thank god for him because he's carried the team for the past 2 series. Well, I'll finish getting ready to go out. Enjoy the weekend.

P.S.-Congrats to Den's sister on graduating college!

I have a few things to look forward to this summer, now that school is over. Besides our "vacation" to my brother's house, I have the honor of attending the Face To Face farewell concert in Irving Plaza. It's Sunday, August 22nd, and I am psyched because I never got the chance to see them live, and was really bummed when they called it quits last year, but they're getting together to do a final run. Should be sweet. Don't know who they're playing with, but I don't care.

After getting home from work today, I watched the Blue Jays game on ESPN...unfortunately. They were down 1-0 in the 3rd when I got home, and proceeded to tie the game and take the lead 2-1 in the 5th I think. The Royals tied it at 2, but the Jays took the lead back in the 7th. Kerry Ligtenberg came in for the 8th and left with 2 outs and runners on the corners. Terry Adams, their supposed closer of the moment, came in to get the 3rd out in the 8th. The Jays couldn't do anything in the 8th as Delgado struck out with bases loaded, and then faltered in the 9th again. Adams came back in to close out the game, but didn't have good control. He fell behind 3-1 to Desi Relaford, who's batting .210 this year, and then surrendered a single to him. Aaron Guiel grounded to first, and Relaford moved to 2nd. Angel Berroa grounded to second and Relaford moved to 3rd with 2 outs. Adams then walked Beltran to put runners on the corners and Mike Sweeney lined a ball past Eric Hinske to score both runs and win the game. I watched the game for 3 hours and they lost like that! It sucked. The game must have been 4 hours long because first pitch was 2 pm. Anyway, I was pissed and threw my name tag from work across the room, but soon got over it since I had a feeling Adams didn't have closer stuff...

Our blog had plastic surgery over the weekend apparently, at least the sign-in page. It looks streamlined...So class 1 of 2 is over. Presented my proposal/paper in class and the professor was very nice in not tearing it apart. He's a good teacher, but I still don't think I'll be continuing in the program come September. Now I've got to do a final re-read of my paper for tomorrow's class, read an article, and set up an outline for my presentation of that paper for a 5 minute summary of my stuff. At 8 PM tomorrow I'll be ready to drink my face off; however, I have to wake up at 4:30 for work on Wednesday morning. Blast!

I'm now going to complain about work, since it pisses me off more and more every Monday. We just got a new photo lab in the store, and I'm not trained on the new machines. Somehow, I got stuck in the photo lab today for my last hour when I had lots of other work that I was supposed to do as part of my job position. Also, last week, my manager tells me I won't be in the lab anymore because my job was to focus on inventory and orders. So starting next week, I'll be working Monday nights, when there is someone else working to handle the photo lab.

I had this vision at work today telling me to leave my job and work down the shore this summer, while taking surfing lessons. Probably won't happen, but very tempting.

Dennis just informed me that today is cinco de mayo. I hadn't noticed. Been busy trying to finish my papers. One's done(in my opinion)-that was the 20 pager. Another needs some touch-ups-that's the research proposal, and the last one needs about 8 more pages-that's a 10 pager. I have to say, I like writing, but not research papers. It always seems like I put stuff into the paper just to make the limit for resources and page length, and the quality never seems that good. I hope to finish all paper related stuff tomorrow night after work. Also, both professors just notified me that I have to present the projects in a 20 minute session for my Monday class(the proposal and 10 pager) and a 5 minute blurb for my Tuesday class(the 20 pager). I wasn't really expecting this, since neither of them mentioned this would be necessary the entire semester, so I'm not about to put forth a great effort. My efforts are and will be wasted entirely on writing. Anything else they get from me is a privilege, biatch.

We saw Kill Bill Vol. 2 over the weekend, and I enjoyed it, not as much as the first, but still pretty captivating. Quentin Tarantino's such a strange man, but I enjoyed most of his movies. Most. Glad to hear Matt's having good luck thus far with his school after-life.